Is this a good budget build?

I'm trying to put together a system that will play most games on high settings, some on max, with a good fps. I play WoW on the PC mainly but if I bought this I would switch from being primarily a console gamer, to a PC gamer. I mainly play adventure and FPS games on my PS3, and keep a Wii around for LoZ.

Is this a reasonable expectation for this price range? I'm not really willing to spend much more. By the way, to avoid a. buying a new monitor and b. using a 32" tv up close with only 720p resolution, and having to buy a desk, I've concluded I wouldn't mind - and might actually enjoy, connecting the computer to my 720p 32" tv, and using my laptop cart for the keyboard/mouse, so I can play from a normal distance from the tv?. I'll need to use USB extension cables for this, as the computer will rest next to the TV. Is this a good idea, or would it be like throwing my money away if I don't bite the bullet and buy a 1080p monitor?

The only things not included are GPU,HDD, mouse and keyboard. With those you listed included the total after rebates would be $789.90 plus tax. I don't know what your actual budget is but this build would last you a while.

Last edited by jholdaway; 2013-01-23 at 05:45 PM.
Reason: Noticed there wasn't a hard drive in that bundle

The only things not included are GPU,HDD, mouse and keyboard. With those you listed included the total after rebates would be $789.90 plus tax. I don't know what your actual budget is but this build would last you a while.

I'd like to keep the total under 700..pref around 600 ignoring peripheals. I just want the best bang for my buck, without breaking the bank - I'm a college student. Tax season+Christmas gift card balances are the reason I'm considering this.

I would get an Antec VP-450 PSU, and get a i3-3220 instead of the 2100. Same price, better CPU. You should be able to get 1600 ram as well, for about the same price. That will future proof your system all the more.

I would get an Antec VP-450 PSU, and get a i3-3220 instead of the 2100. Same price, better CPU. You should be able to get 1600 ram as well, for about the same price. That will future proof your system all the more.

It's really not. Your system doesn't even break 300w if it were at 100% load, which it pretty much never will be. Even if you upgraded your CPU later to an i5, it would only increase by about 20w in power. Even a bigger video card won't push it past 330w. The only reason you'd want to get bigger, is if you REALLY think you're going to go crossfire video cards, but I think if and when that time comes, and you can afford that much power, you can just get a bigger PSU anyway. But... honestly you won't need that kind of video power.

I don't recommend a 1GB video card (VRAM bottleneck) and I really don't recommend the 7850 since its at an 'unfair' price. A fair price for the 7850 2GB from a high tier manufacturer would be $170. Subtract $10-20 for 1GB.

If you can afford going over the budget (or squeeze some money from the case or peripherals), the 660 currently has an excellent performance/price ratio. TechPowerUp's Catalyst 12.11 Benchmarks. According to these benchmarks, you're getting 15% more performance for 18% more money. Normal diminishing returns for graphics card is X% more performance for 2X% more money. Plus, you're getting a 2GB card over the 1GB Sapphire 7850.

That huge jump comes from the improved IPC of Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge and also the 700MHz difference in clock speed. It has very little to do with the core count.

IPC of Ivy vs Sandy is only 5-10%, not 34% as shown by the benchmarks. While playing WoW, the 3570K does not turbo so the clock speed difference is only 300 Mhz. Moreover, clock speed doesn't scale linearly with performance. A very rough rule of thumb for clock speed is X% increase in performance from 2X% increase in clock speed.

IPC of Ivy vs Sandy is only 5-10%, not 34% as shown by the benchmarks. While playing WoW, the 3570K does not turbo so the clock speed difference is only 300 Mhz. Moreover, clock speed doesn't scale linearly with performance. A very rough rule of thumb for clock speed is X% increase in performance from 2X% increase in clock speed.

We see that going from 2500K to 3570K we get 100 Mhz as well as Ivy over Sandy and we only see an improvement of 5.69% overall. Moreover, 100 Mhz is worth 3% clock speed.

Most importantly, when comparing the i5-2400 to the i3-2120 there is no difference in clock speed yet an 18% increase in performance.

WoW's triple threaded nature makes i5 superior to i3.

Well, at any rate, it's a worthwhile improvement. Thank you for the suggestion, if my budget allows I may go for the i5/660, we'll see.

Thanks for all the help everyone, I just have a few last questions.

1080p 21.5" monitor vs. 32" Sony Bravia 720p television(sitting a few feet away from the tv) - is either option bad enough to not even warrant laying down $700 on a gaming computer? I already have the second one.

Is the H77/B75 MOBO going to be ok with an i5/660?

And finally, is a, say 6 ft, USB extension cord going to distort the signal from my mouse/keyboard, if I decide to go with option 2(32" tv, at a distance)?

Well, at any rate, it's a worthwhile improvement. Thank you for the suggestion, if my budget allows I may go for the i5/660, we'll see.

Thanks for all the help everyone, I just have a few last questions.

1080p 21.5" monitor vs. 32" Sony Bravia 720p television(sitting a few feet away from the tv) - is either option bad enough to not even warrant laying down $700 on a gaming computer? I already have the second one.

Is the H77/B75 MOBO going to be ok with an i5/660?

And finally, is a, say 6 ft, USB extension cord going to distort the signal from my mouse/keyboard, if I decide to go with option 2(32" tv, at a distance)?

I have gamed on a 32" 1080p television before and tbh, I wouldn't do it again. In my experience, gaming on a TV makes things blurry and text gets hard to read. I would opt for the monitor if you can. If you cannot, plan on saving up for one soon.

I have gamed on a 32" 1080p television before and tbh, I wouldn't do it again. In my experience, gaming on a TV makes things blurry and text gets hard to read. I would opt for the monitor if you can. If you cannot, plan on saving up for one soon.

Alright man, thanks. My tv does have a gaming mode, so that will hopefully reduce the blur if it's present. If not, I'll save up for one, or wait till my birthday in June. Btw, I went over to the starter build suggestion thread, and he mentioned something about new GPUs coming out in early/mid 2013? Has this already happened, and if not, should I wait? I'm guessing they'll be high end stuff, if not the new best of the best, but would the effect of their release cause lower end GPUs to have their price cut?

Alright man, thanks. My tv does have a gaming mode, so that will hopefully reduce the blur if it's present. If not, I'll save up for one, or wait till my birthday in June. Btw, I went over to the starter build suggestion thread, and he mentioned something about new GPUs coming out in early/mid 2013? Has this already happened, and if not, should I wait? I'm guessing they'll be high end stuff, if not the new best of the best, but would the effect of their release cause lower end GPUs to have their price cut?

They have not come out yet and yeah, more than likely it will reduce to price of current stuff by a bit I would think. However, I never recommend waiting for something to come out to upgrade. If you do that, then you'll likely always be waiting. The best time to buy/build is when you have the money to do it. In my opinion anyway.

To avoid making a loss, AMD and Nvidia tend to release the top of the line product first and price it accordingly to current gen market prices. In short you won't see a price reduction in current gen hardware but more like a shifting of products in price brackets.

Take the 7950 for example, it performed better than the 6970 when it was released, ofcourse it did. This didn't reduce prices of the 6970 but rather it set the price for the 7950. When the 7970 was released, rather than setting a competitive price against Nvidia's GTX 580, they charged a premium for it, since on its release it was the best card on the market. This meant that vendors didn't have to restructure prices on some of their GTX580 lines because it was still cheaper than the 7970.

So don't wait, as Lathais mentioned, buy now. Prices are as good as they will probably get for current gen hardware with a few sales hitting the shelves here or there.

If you can deal with the MIR, the Antec Neo Eco 650c that Nocturnal linked is worth the rebate hassle. It's the seasonic S12II platform. The VP450, while decent, is fortron(aka FSP), and doesn't really hold a candle to the S12II unit.